The Ontario government has announced that construction will begin later this year on a new battery storage facility near Tilbury in Lakeshore.
Battery storage, or battery energy storage systems, are devices that enable energy from renewables, like solar and wind, to be stored and then released when the power is needed most.
The Tilbury Battery Storage Project will store 80 megawatts of power, the equivalent to powering 80,000 homes.
Walpole Island First Nation has partnered with Boralex on the project, which is being called an important investment that will improve reliability and strengthen supply chains, particularly during peak demand periods like harvest season.
The project will generate 150 jobs as a result of the construction and maintenance jobs once the facility is completed.
Stephen Lecce, Minister of Energy and Electrification, told AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides that this is all part of the vision to keep electricity rates down.
"Being able to deliver energy where it's needed. The greenhouse expansion, the industrial expansion, the manufacturing expansion, the auto, the entire supply chain is really important," he says.
The Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) has indicated that the province will need at least 60 percent more energy in the next 25 years.
To support the demand for more power, battery storage facilities will enable generated clean power to be stored and deployed when needed.
Lecce says the power would be used on the local grids.
"Often they would pull that power during peak periods, so like during those really high intensity energy rates because it's more expensive to generate than it would be to pull off a battery storage," he says.
Lecce says that we use this power as an offset so they don't have to generate more expensive power during peak periods.
"It's actually a great way to stabilize the bills, keep them down, keep them affordable, and frankly reduce the requirements to generate energy if we can store it for whenever we need it. That's the beauty of these types of investments, storage," he says.
In all, Boralex is building 505 megawatts of energy storage facilities in Ontario.
Boralex is a power company that develops, builds, and operates renewable energy facilities.